After three weeks of behind-the-scenes US bullying, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a statement on Wednesday calling on Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program and giving the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 30 days to report back. Although amended at the insistence of Russia and China, the statement provides Washington with the pretext for escalating the confrontation with Tehran and its threats of punitive sanctions and military action.
John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, immediately seized on the vote as “an unambiguous signal to Iran that the Security Council, charged with the maintenance of international peace and security under the Charter, is now dealing with the issue.” Ruling out any possibility of compromise, he belligerently warned that the US would be “back on the 31st day” in the UN Security Council “given the Iranian record to date of consistently flouting the International Atomic Energy Agency.”

The following is a statement issued by Socialist Equality Party candidate for US Senate from New York, Bill Van Auken.

The Democrats unveiled the first major element of their campaign platform for the 2006 midterm elections Wednesday, making it plain that the party intends to cynically adapt to the mass hostility that exists within the American people to the US war in Iraq, while pledging to continue that war and even escalate the buildup of American militarism.
The statement, entitled “Real Security,” was presented at Washington’s Union Station by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, together with other Congress members, as well as Clinton’s former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former NATO commander and unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark—both of whom played key roles in the 1999 US war against Yugoslavia.

While subpoenaing journalists directly was a "big mistake," says Stanford law professor Joseph Grundfest, "it shouldn't be surprising and it shouldn't disappoint anybody" that the agency is going after market participants' communications with journalists. "It would be a very strange world if people could be held liable for every lie they told except for the biggest lies they told to reporters," he(Joseph Grundfest,ex-SEC Commissioner and Stanford University law professor) adds.”

Battlecry, a Christian fundamentalist youth group, held a rally on the steps of the San Franisco City Hall to campaign against gay marriage. They were met with a spirited counterprotest by World Can't Wait.